IRVING, Texas -- Two days of College Football Playoff meetings left the Big 12 with answers to questions that may change the league's future.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby says this week's meetings revealed that the lack of a title game worked against his conference in the national title race last season.
TCU was No. 3 entering the final week of the season and fell to No. 6, despite beating Iowa State 55-3. Ohio State's 59-0 win over Wisconsin vaulted the Buckeyes into the playoff and kept the Frogs and No. 5 Baylor out.
The Bears entered the final weekend ranked No. 6 and beat No. 9 Kansas State 38-27 to move in front of TCU but lost ground to Ohio State and were excluded from the playoff.
"What we heard is if we don't go to a championship game we're at a disadvantage," Bowlsby said Wednesday after league commissioners and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick closed two days of CFP meetings that were originally scheduled to stretch over three days.
Committe chairman Jeff Long was in attendance at the Four Seasons this week and told commissioners that, all things being equal, 13 "data points" was better than 12, despite the Big 12 having two top 10 teams in Kansas State and Baylor facing each other on the season's final weekend.
"I think it provides us all the information we need to go forward and shape a better position for ourselves," Bowlsby said. "If we don't make changes, then we're potentially going into the season with a short stick in our hands."
CFP executive director Bill Hancock added that the 13th game "helped Ohio State."
Last year, the Big 12 and the ACC petitioned the NCAA to deregulate the rule that requires conferences to have 12 teams and two divisions to host title games.
It is expected to be granted but isn't official yet.
If it is granted, Bowlsby surmised that "we will probably move in that direction, knowing what we now know."
The Big 12 played a championship game from 1996-2010 until Nebraska and Colorado left the conference. The Big 12 has played a nine-game, round-robin conference schedule since then and eliminated the title game when it eliminated divisions.
The Big 12's athletic directors and coaches are scheduled to meet next week in Phoenix. Bowlsby said the issue of a title game will be discussed.
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